This is it!

The internet has let me down. I wanted to embed a link to Mari Wilson singing the entirely lyrically inappropriate song "This is it" because she's one of my favourite vocalists and ever since the decision to leave for France has finally lightly coalesced it's been going around and around in my head.

Search it out. You can hear the soundtrack to my life. (it's on Showpeople)

Yes, at last, it's almost certain, we may be going over at the weekend, subject to well, almost anything that could wrong and the fisherfolk being adequately bought off for the time being.

I'm not so much disappointed like Mari but thrown into the usual fugue state that relates to packing, travelling, disconnecting from one form of existence and anticipating another which includes loneliness and summer in equal measures, a knife edge of pain and pleasure that is almost addictive.

Anyway, to more practical things. The only tomato seeds that have germinated strongly from the ancient stuff planted a couple of weeks ago are the Golden Sunrise. I suppose I'm not surprised but my secret optimist had hoped for more. I'll have to make up the varieties with some purchased plants from the local garden centres when we arrive, it's really too late to try again from seed now.



Kittens are going to have a sudden descent into hell too. The journey takes at least seven hours. We bought a big car for cat comfort (well, it was amongst the considerations) and we'll travel via the Chunnel so that they never have to be left alone on a smelly unheated car deck but even so, it's a tedious and uncomfortable trip. They've done a few shorter journeys and complained most of the time. I'm hoping that a long journey will give them time to settle and then after that they will become reconciled to the journey as Baggsy did. Yes, it's the secret optimist speaking again, but I am sure they're going to love it when they get there. It's kitten heaven.

No more posts now until we've reassembled on the other side of the transporter. See you there.

Reader survey

Google are making it easier to put adverts on the site. I've resisted this for a long time now because I really don't want to irritate people by thrusting marketing in their faces - nobody wants visual spamming.

But, I am perpetually broke and analysing the stats for this site reveals that the vast majority of traffic is one-off views from image searches, with very few regular visitors or subscribers.

If you like the blog as it is and would prefer me not to add some small google ads to the sidebar could you make a comment? I'd rather please my friends than earn a very small copper although taking care of a few pennies would be helpful if it didn't bother anyone.

Kitten Diary #3

The kits are progressing well.

On the 1st April, no joke, they went into the vet's for their neutering operations. At five months I feel this was a little early, despite many assurances from cat professionals that it makes no difference to development. I worry that while they are still growing so fast removing natural hormones from their bodies will be damaging. And with regard to this, several people have told me that body weight is used by some veterinarians to determine when the operation is best done, with very small female cats having to wait until they have gained pounds. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it. I asked our vets here and they were dismissive.

But the RSPCA had extracted a promise from me, the Cat's Protection League are now recommending neutering at four months or even earlier and I wanted to get it over with in this country - not because the vets abroad are incapable but because it would have been difficult to negotiate in my poor French had anything gone wrong.

Everything went well, the actual surgery is very minor for the boys, just a quick snip of the scrotum and pop them out if that's not too much information. Raven had to have her side shaved and more serious work through an incision in her abdomen. The hole looked quite tiny, the sutures were neat and there has been no infection. The stitches dissolve by themselves and the hair is growing back quickly. She was racing about like a mad cat as soon as we got her home.

The cost of the operations was about £40 for the boys and £60 for the girl, to include a follow up visit to the nurse and pain medication if needed (it wasn't), so not too bad compared to the relatively uninvasive procedure of getting the passports at £160 each! These cats are costing a fortune.

We still haven't quite decided when we'll make the trip to France for the summer. We're all desperate to get there, even the kittens although they don't realise it, they love the outdoor life, but work stops play. It's a problem.

Les Kitten Passports

sont arrivés!

Hurrah.

The Year of the Tomato

probably.

This year we'll be attempting to grow ten varieties of tomato. This is a lot more than we've aspired to for several seasons now; held back by the challenges of relocation and the weather, not to mention the insidious menace of blight which seems to attack more fiercely every year.


A few of the varieties in this picture are listed below, pop over to flickr for the names.

So far I've started Latah and Purple Ukraine from Realseeds. These seeds were bought this year and I have to say haven't shown particularly good germination. Latah is supposed to be very early and the Ukraine is a purple plum type which looks appealing in the picture.

The rest of this post is going to be rather dull - I have to list some stuff so I don't forget it. The other tomatoes planted today (I know, it seems late but they will be expected to manage outside if at all possible) are:-

Purple Calabash, home saved seed from 1995 (!). Frankly I don't think there's much hope here but there is plenty of seed so I may strike lucky.

Golden Sunrise, from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (HDRA). Packed 2005 sow by 2007.

Evergreen, Association Kokopelli. Packed 2003, viable 5 yrs.

Orange Banana, Heritage Seed library. No date, so before 2002.

Ruby F1 T&M. Packed 2002 sow by 2004. Yes, a bit of a departure for here but they are popular as giveaways and cost a lot, so I'm using them up.

Striped Stuffer it's in the picture, Royal Sluis. exp. Jan 2006. My daughter brought these back for me from a trip to Amsterdam.

Banana Legs, Association Kokopelli. Packed 2002, viable 5 yrs.

Salt Spring Sunrise, Heritage Seed Library. Kittens stole the packet but these aren't very old, probably a couple of years.

I also popped in some purple de milpa tomatillos from Unwins, exp. 2006.

As you can see, this is a whole lot of use it or lose it. I'm hoping that it will be possible to save some seed but will be happy just to get a crop.

The Joy of Swapping

or what the postman brought me.

Cordula sent a different colour of ulluco, white with pink streaks; these tubers seem more rounded than the elongated ones I've been growing from Realseeds.



She also sent me some Anredera cordifolia also known as Madeira Vine. This is actually related to the Ullucos and is a strong growing, frost tender vine which produces edible leaves and tubers.

And then, in addition to the Sorghum seed I had asked for she sent two tiny tubers of a potato she describes as blaue Neuseelaender. I'm not very bright at German and it's taken me a couple of weeks to realise this translates as New Zealand blue. There isn't such a variety listed for New Zealand but there is a likely candidate in Urenika or its synonym Tutai Kuri, a very ancient variety grown by the Māori and, at least by some, alleged to have been in cultivation there for 1000 years after Peruvian whalers dropped them off in ancient times. The potato actually looks very similar to Vitelotte and it will be interesting to grow them together this year for comparison.


Mybighair (yes, I do have a real name but don't know if it's in the public domain) sent me some seeds for Lathyrus Tuberosus. As I said before I'd never heard of this but now know a little more. Two of the seeds have germinated and are growing away quite nicely so I hope to be able to document them and maybe even taste them over the next year or two.



This same kind swapper also sent me a section of perennial onion, Allium cepa perutile, to help me get started again. I lost my original stocks in a forced house move some years ago.

Derek has sent me some tubers of Apios Americana, also known as the American ground nut although it is nothing like peanuts which are also known as ground nuts. The plant forms strings of starchy edible tubers and is in addition an attractive and vigorous climber that will reach a height of 3 metres in a good year. This plant is associated with the Mayflower settlers of 1620 and is supposed to have contributed usefully to their meagre diet in the first years of settlement.



With the Apios Derek also sent some Mayflower beans, climbing french beans which tradition would have us believe came over to America on the Mayflower itself. This is almost certainly bollocks. Climbing french beans of this type had barely reached Europe at the time of the Mayflower and were in no way a common enough a foodstuff to be taken as part of the essential provisions for the journey. This is supported by various 'settler's lists' of the time which mention meal and peas but nothing of beans. On the other hand native Americans all over the northern continent were growing varieties of beans with their other crops. I think these beans were possibly a local variety taken or traded for from the Indians in the area although the truth will probably never be known. Leaving all this aside, the beans are incredibly pretty, primitive looking and squarish in shape with delicate pink mottles and streaks over a grey-cream ground. I'm looking forward to growing them.

Tristan has sent me an enormous quantity of Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum) for which I'm really grateful as it will give me a great head start on building up stocks of my own. The Elephant garlic is more closely related to the leeks than true garlic (Allium sativum) and actually not that far removed from Babington's leek which I already have. The taste is mild compared to the ordinary sort but the large bulbs offer opportunities for gently flavoured impressive garnishes and easier pickling.



So this year's swapping has been a resounding success and I repeat my thanks to everyone for their generosity. I'm not sure what I'll have to offer next year but I'm happily anticipating making new contacts and learning about new plants from them. I hope anyone reading who hasn't tried it yet will give swapping a go for themselves too as it's very rewarding.

Handful of Hops

The first spring harvest, perhaps. Hops shoots have been gathered and used as a green vegetable for many generations although in the UK they have fallen from favour, perhaps as a result of the shrinking of the hop farms of Kent and I have never seen reference to them in France.

We don't have many hop plants but they are strong growers and very vigorous, it seems safe enough to take a handful of shoots for a spring snack.


Take just the top few cms of the shoot, longer shoots are tougher and you need to leave a node or two to shoot again or you'll have no hops in the autumn. Of course, if your bines are managed intensively you may prefer to limit the shoots to just one or two strong growing tips and sacrifice all the rest but our rather haphazard plants seem happiest with a tangle of new growth each year.


Cooking is simple, drop the hop shoots, tied for tidyness if you like, into a pan of simmering water. They take only a couple of minutes to cook like this and I served them with rather a lot of salt and pepper and a dab of vegan mayo as a summery nibble. They'd also be great chopped and added to rice at the end of cooking or used in a flan or tart in the manner of asparagus.